An Evening With Alex and Winn
by domina tempore
Summary: The blind date was iabsolutely/i Kara's doing. The chaos was less of a planned-out sort of thing. (or, Winn and Alex are bad at dating but are still heroes.) p1/?


**Supergirl:** _An Evening With Alex and Winn_

 _Disclaimer: Supergirl and all of its characters, locations, etc. belong to their respective owners; I'm just borrowing. No copyright infringement intended!_

 _Author's Note: This has been in my head in a few versions since I finished watching S1. It started out as my hiatus project to deal with my feelings; having Alex and Winn on a blind date so that they could complain about how bad they both are at dating. And I also wanted them teaming up and being heroes together, without Kara swooping in to save the day. And then S2 started, so I edited the early bits to adjust for Clark's visit and some of the CADMUS stuff; but I stopped after 2 episodes because of NaNoWriMo and my need to focus on that project. And while I am still quite behind, I was spoiled for some things, and I understand that my depiction of Alex as asexual isn't the route they took. I don't want to be seen as disrespectful to everyone who her canon storyline has touched, but being ace myself, it was important to me. (It's also set pre-Maggie, though, so you can interpret it however you'd like.) My endless thanks to DinerGuy and FrankieMcStein and IuvenesCor and Sisangel, who are amazing and support me in all the ways. This would not be without them. (And DG is also a wonderful beta! Any mistakes left are absolutely mine.)_

xx

The blind date had been...almost entirely Kara's idea.

That was what J'onn was going with, at least. He had to go with that. Otherwise, instead of just facilitating one party's invitation to said date, it might be accused that he was actually _involved_ in the thing. Which he was not. All he was doing was acting on Kara's suggestion that somebody find her sister a date so that she wouldn't waste so much time trying and failing to do the exact same thing.

J'onn was not exactly sure how finding a date for Alex - the identity of which she wouldn't even be _aware_ until she arrived - would prevent her from being awkward and generally hard to interact with on said date, but then, he wasn't human. And he most certainly wasn't _female_. Kara was the latter, at least. If she thought that this was going to be good for Alex, well...despite what misgivings he might have been harboring, the girl had to know her sister better than he did.

Right?

He cleared his throat awkwardly at the doorway of Alex's lab. She spared him a glance but then returned to the piece of the suit that she was working on. "What's up?" she asked distractedly, forgetting to tack on a "Sir" at the end. (Which was not protocol, but J'onn did not particularly mind the slip-up. It meant that she was comfortable enough, at least in private, not to stand behind protocol as a shield. This could be either very good, or very dangerous to him in the future. He was choosing to be optimistic.)

"I, uh, wanted to talk to you about something, Miss Danvers."

She immediately put down the tools she'd been working with and straightened up. "Should I be worried?" she asked, again omitting the "Sir." There was real fear in her eyes.

Oops. That hadn't been the reaction he was going for. "No, I'm sorry, it's nothing dangerous," he corrected hurriedly. "I just...wanted to see how you are doing. Personally?"

Again, his words seemed to have the opposite of his intended reaction. "Oh my gosh, something is wrong. What's happening? Are you dying?"

"No!" This was ridiculous. How did humans handle awkward social interactions like this all the time? Why would any being put themselves in this position _on purpose_? "Your sister had mentioned to me that you might be feeling...lonely here, recently. When her cousin was here," he couldn't entirely keep the irritation out of his voice, "I noticed some tension between the two of you, and I was wondering if there was anything that could be done to alleviate it?"

Alex laughed then, which was better than worry but still not what was supposed to be happening. (J'onn was never volunteering for anything like this _ever again_.) "You worry too much, Sir," she told him fondly before turning back to the piece of her armor she had been working on.

J'onn sighed. "Your sister is under the impression that you are in need of some down time," he said finally, instead of dignifying that with a response. He didn't worry too much; he used exactly the right and proper amount of worry for each situation as it arose. "At her suggestion, I have made you a reservation at _Benoist's_ for this evening. You are to be there at eight o'clock, stay for at least two hours, and enjoy yourself, all fully paid for by the DEO."

"Kara put you up to this?" Now it looked like Alex wasn't quite sure whether she should laugh or cry. "You've got to be kidding me. What, does she think that I don't know how or when to relax?"

"Apparently," J'onn grumbled under his breath. Out loud, he said, "I am sure that you are intimately aware of your sister's level of persistence, Miss Danvers." Alex raised an eyebrow. "Please, just accept the free meal and take the night off, so that I don't have to listen to her complaining and nagging me about your emotional well-being for the rest of the month. She isn't going to let this go, you know."

"Buying me dinner is a really gross misuse of DEO funds," she tried, shaking her head. "This is ridiculous. You could buy me potstickers for ten bucks and send me home. That would be a night off."

"One nice dinner is hardly going to deplete the DEO's discretionary fund. Now, go home and get yourself dressed; the restaurant that your sister suggested has a bit more of a...refined dress code than combat fatigues." He held up a hand to stop any further protests. "Don't make me make it an order, Miss Danvers." 

Her mouth snapped shut, and she narrowed her eyes at him. "Fine," she gritted finally. "But if you expect me to go to _Benoist's_ and dress up for it...I'm going to need a dress."

Well, she had ultimately given in more easily than he'd expected. He wondered how much money he was about to sign off on for a _dress_. "Our discretionary fund will of course be providing the evening's attire as well, if necessary."

Alex grinned. "Okay. I'm glad we understand each other."

Now, why did J'onn feel like by trying to facilitate Kara's wild scheme, her sister had somehow ultimately played him?

xx

The blind date had definitely been entirely Kara's idea.

James was not a fan of blind dates. He supposed that he could be called old-fashioned. Going out on a date with someone that he'd never met before, based on the opinions of others, was not exactly comfortable. For him, the idea of growing up with someone, knowing them for years, and slowly realizing that they were actually the one for you, was appealing. He didn't go in for quick flings or online dating or any of that stuff. He believed that if you belonged with someone, then you were going to find them no matter what.

So no, it had _not_ been his idea to set Winn up on a blind date. Which, honestly, couldn't possibly go all that well. Winn's romantic interests tended to be either oblivious to his affection or kind of psychopaths. Setting him up with some random stranger couldn't possibly bode well for the poor girl's future. Though honestly, setting him up with Alex was probably not going to be any smoother.

But Kara had been adamant. And while the two of them had decided to wait and put their relationship on hold for a bit while they figured life out, that didn't mean he wouldn't still bring her the moon if she asked for it. If she wanted Winn to have a night on the town with a "mysterious" hot girl...he could help facilitate that. Just so long as everyone was aware that it was definitely, absolutely, and for sure not his idea.

He leaned against a computer desk that his friend wasn't currently occupying, and crossed his arms over his chest, trying to look casual. Because that's how cool he was. "Hey, Winn, you got any plans tonight?" he asked.

Winn didn't even look up from his three - no, four computer screens as he answered, "Nope, I was actually gonna stay here and look into some CADMUS stuff for Alex. You know, burn the midnight oil and maybe earn some brownie points with the boss man. Gosh, you know, I thought working for _Cat Grant_ was stressful; but this guy is even more uptight than she is!" He seemed to suddenly realize what he was saying and shut his mouth abruptly. A look of vague panic crossed his face. "Um, you're not gonna tell him I said that, right? Or her, for that matter. Oh my gosh, I'm dead…"

"Relax, your secret is safe with me," James promised. "Actually, I was wondering if you wanted to go out tonight?"

Winn eyed him with a different kind of concern, and James belatedly realized that his wording might not have been the most appropriate. "Dude, I mean, I'm flattered, but...you know I don't swing that way, right?"

"That's not what I was saying!" Crap. Somehow, he just _knew_ that Winn was never going to let him live that slip of the tongue down. "What I mean is, a while ago I made this dinner reservation for me and Kara for tonight, but since we're taking a break, trying to figure stuff out, we're not gonna end up using it, and it would be a shame for a spot at _Benoist's_ to go to waste."

Winn perked up at the mention of _Benoist's_. He whistled. "How'd you score that?"

"My association with the man in blue does have its perks." He shrugged carelessly.

(That part wasn't even a lie. Clark _had_ helped them to hook up the reservation before he left.)

"Wait, don't you still want to use it?" Winn frowned curiously. "I mean, that's a pretty swanky place. Isn't there someone else you wouldn't mind having dinner with, instead of giving your reservation to me?" He narrowed his eyes. "Unless you're messing with me."

James laughed. "Winn, I promise I'm not messing with you. It's just a dinner reservation. I think Kara is giving hers to a friend from the office or something; maybe the two of you will hit it off?" Technically not a lie. He wondered how many bones Alex was going to break when she found out about this. (Again, in his defense, the blind date thing was _all Kara_.) "I hear she's pretty hot."

"Like, pretty, pretty hot? Or pretty but going to try to steal my soul hot?"

"Like, beautiful." James patted him on the back. "Look, Kara said she's a nice girl, and as far as we know, there aren't any unresolved insanity issues in her family history, so you should be okay. I'm sure your CADMUS research isn't going anywhere overnight. But we barely see you anymore; Kara only sees you because she works here, too. You deserve a night off, man."

James could see in Winn's expression that he was actually getting excited about the idea, and he was trying not to show it. "I mean, if you're _sure_ that you don't mind me taking your reservation…" _  
_  
"Positive. Have fun, man."

James wondered how Winn was going to react when he got to the restaurant and found out who Kara had set him up with. Assuming, of course, that J'onn had done his part. Belatedly, he hoped that Alex didn't decide to break any of _Winn's_ bones instead. It really had been entirely Kara's idea.

She'd understand that, right?

xx

Alex felt way more uncomfortable than was probably necessary walking into the restaurant.

It was way fancier than anything she normally did, other than those ridiculous black-tie functions that her cover job had sometimes required her to attend. But then she always had a purpose. Here, she was drifting. _Go out, have fun, take a night off_. That was really something, coming from J'onn. Other than his brief tenure in a cell at the desert facility, she had never once known him to take time off. And she had better things to do than sit around in an uncomfortably fancy restaurant and eat by herself.

"Excuse me? I have a reservation under James Olsen, please."

Alex blinked. There was a chance that there were two James Olsens in National City, of course...but the _likelihood_ of there being two, let alone two in the same part of town?

Well, Alex wasn't a statistics major, but she was pretty sure "slim to none" was a scientific classification.

Which meant that whoever this guy in the suit was, he was trying to steal her friend's identity. Not technically in her jurisdiction, but she could make it work for her. Besides, J'onn had told her to have _fun_. This was fun. And it was a public service! She was getting an identity thief off the street.

With stealth that was impressive for a woman in heels (the DEO really had sprung for some quality digs), she made her way over to the man who was still chatting up the host and dug her fingers into his elbow. "Are you James Olsen the photographer?" she asked with false sweetness as he whimpered. "Acting director of Catco Industries?"

To her surprise, the guy didn't try to sell his story. "Jimmy's my friend he set me up on a blind date I'm just the IT guy please don't kill me!"

Wait a minute…! "Winn?"

"Alex!"

She let him go immediately, and Winn rubbed at his arm, grimacing. "Ow! What did you do that for?"

"Sorry, I just, I didn't recognize you…" It was the wrong setting, he was all dressed up, and she hadn't _looked_ , she'd just reacted. "I thought you were trying to steal Olsen's identity."

"I would never do that!" He looked properly offended. "James said that he and Kara set me up a blind date because they were gonna have dinner here but then they decided to take a break, you know? And they wanted me to have a chance to go out with someone who _wasn't_ completely nuts. I thought...I mean, not that you're completely nuts! Or even a little nuts! Can I go now?" He looked absolutely mortified.

Alex wasn't feeling much better. She wondered if J'onn had known anything about this, or if he had been an innocent pawn in her sister's meddling schemes. No wonder he had been asking her all that ridiculous stuff; Kara must have put him up to it. "I can't believe that Kara did this," she muttered, ignoring Winn's request. "She played us! As if we're not fully functioning adults who are totally capable of going out and getting our own dates without her interference."

Winn raised a finger tentatively. "Technically, I've never been able to maintain a steady relationship," he pointed out. "And weren't you complaining to me a couple weeks ago that you hadn't been on a date in years?"

She shot him a withering glare, and he shrank back.

"Um, excuse me, Sir, Miss?" Alex glared at the host too before remembering that this wasn't his fault and softening her expression. "Would the two of you still like the reservation? If not, there is a queue forming up behind you."

Alex glanced at Winn, who still looked like he'd rather be anywhere but where they were right then. "I think we'll have to try our luck another night," she decided and was rewarded with relief on her friend's face. (How long that lasted would depend on his involvement in this little setup.) "Thank you anyways." Something else occurred to her. "I'm sorry if we caused a scene."

The host waved a dismissive hand. "Please, the two of you have been quite tame. I cannot tell you how many rich husbands I have seen come into this place to tell their wives they are leaving them. I am just glad that your situation can be more peacefully resolved."

"So does this mean I can go now?" Winn asked hopefully as they exited the fancy restaurant.

Alex raised an eyebrow at him. "According to J'onn, the DEO is paying for dinner tonight; we might as well take advantage of that. Unless you'd rather not?"

Winn considered her carefully for a minute. "Potstickers?" he suggested finally.

A smile managed to break through onto Alex's face. The man certainly knew the way to a Danvers woman's heart. "Sounds perfect," she agreed. "I know just the place."

Twenty minutes later, they were sharing a corner booth at Alex's favorite hole-in-the wall Chinese restaurant, sipping on beers while they waited for their food.

"Kara thinks I'm hopeless when it comes to relationships," Alex was saying. For some reason, it was easy to talk to Winn (once she'd established that he really hadn't known anything about the blind date). "Which might be partially true. I haven't really been in a relationship since college, and all of those were...more flings than anything important. And once I started working for the DEO, most of my life ended up top secret or redacted. It's surprisingly hard to get to know someone when you're not allowed to tell them about ninety percent of your life."

"And you never thought about dating within the DEO?"

Alex shrugged. "Most of the guys went through training with me or after me. It would be weird, trying to have a romantic relationship inside the Agency; they know too much about me there. It's the opposite problem, I guess." She chuckled. "Kara, of course, looks at my life like there's something horribly wrong with it because I've decided not to date. Do you know how many blind dates she's _tried_ to set me up on?"

"Is this a rhetorical question…?"

"You don't want to know the number," Alex cut him off. "She even tried to set me up with a girl once, figuring that that might have been the problem."

"But I'm guessing that it wasn't that?" Winn tried hesitantly. Which was fair, considering how she had accosted him in _Benoist's_ a little while ago.

Alex shook her head thoughtfully. "Her heart was in the right place, but it's not that I'm _not_ into guys, technically. I guess it's more...trust is weird, you know? And if I can't be with someone that I worked with and trained with and know that well, then I'm definitely not going to hook up with some random guy on a blind date." She sighed and took a sip of her beer. "But that's how I ended up here. How'd they get you on the hook?"

"Well, as you know, I haven't exactly had the best track record with 'the ladies,'" Winn made air quotes around the last two words. "I mean, Kara and I are best friends, pretty much. We're super close. But I spent so long in love with her and she never even noticed. And then there was Siobhan, who was smart and attractive and actually _into_ me, which was new...but then she had to go have this weird family curse thing and tried to destroy the city. So there's that."

"So when Kara and James offered you their reservation and said they'd set you up with a girl, you didn't even stop to think about who that might be?"

"Well I certainly wasn't expecting _you_!"

"You were expecting someone gorgeous, smart, attractive, and sexy, and you got me, right?"

"Yes! I mean, no! I didn't say any of that. Why would you even...ugh please don't break me."

After a minute of watching him squirm, Alex took pity on him. "Winn, relax. I was kidding."

"Oh." He chuckled nervously. "Haha. You got me…" Their food arrived then, saving him from the awkwardness for a few minutes while they situated themselves and their dinner. For a while, there was more chewing and swallowing than conversation.

"You do...look pretty amazing tonight," he mumbled after a while, around a mouthful of sweet and sour chicken. "I mean, that dress? Wow! And your face! Not that your face isn't always nice, of course; I would never suggest that. But this is not your go-to wardrobe."

Alex glanced down at the dress she'd run up the DEO accounts for. "Fancy dresses aren't really my thing," she shrugged. "It's all J'onn's fault; I used to be a party girl. But after he brought me into the DEO I got entirely too practical about clothes and stuff; shiny material draws the eye, makes it hard to sneak around. It's hard to fight aliens in skirts and heels. If you're sweating, your makeup will run into your eyes and blind you. That kind of thing. I stopped dressing in stuff like this because it got in the way of my job." She trailed off when she noticed that Winn was staring. "What?"

"Oh, nothing." He smiled a little behind his beer. "I just feel like I've really gotten to know you just now. I guess the evening wasn't as much of a bust as we thought, huh?"

Now that he mentioned it, Alex wasn't even sure _why_ she'd told Winn half the things she had. And she found she didn't care nearly as much as she should have. "It's better than hanging out with a bunch of rich jerks about to divorce their wives," she admitted, earning a chuckle.

Winn raised his beer. "To platonic dates," he toasted.

She clinked her bottle against his. "Hear, hear."

Alex was just about to take a sip when the world exploded.

xx

Winn's ears were ringing when he came to. The first thing he noticed was that he was on the ground, surrounded by spilled rice and debris and a whole lot of smoke. People were running and screaming out into the street, ignoring him. He coughed and climbed up onto his hands and knees, searching for Alex and anyone else who might have been caught up in...whatever had just happened.

The shiny material of Alex's dress was reflecting back a small fire a few feet away. "Alex?" he coughed, crawling towards her. "Alex, are you okay?"

There was a nasty cut above her left eye, and for sure they'd both be covered in bruises. But she pulled herself up and flashed him a shaky smile, and that was about as good of an answer as he was going to get. "How about you?" she asked, looking him over with a critical eye. "You good?"

"Well…" No. Not really. But he was alive, and he didn't think that anything was broken, and he supposed that was about as good as could be expected after the restaurant blew up around them. "Let's revisit that question later, like, after your sister comes and deals with whoever just blew this place in." Though, speaking of, it was kind of a surprise that Kara hadn't shown up yet. "Where is she, anyways?"

Alex got to her feet and stumbled to the gaping hole in the side of the restaurant. The frown on her face was not what Winn would define as _comforting_. "Uh, Alex?"

"She should be here by now," she shook her head. "Something must be wrong. Is your phone still working?"

After a minute of searching, Winn located the device in several pieces amid the rubble. "I'm gonna have to go with no." He winced as Alex swore and slammed her fist into what was left of the wall. Wisely, he decided not to say anything as she got herself under control again.

Eventually, she took a deep breath and straightened up. "Okay. Kara's not here, but someone still blew up this building. Right now, we're the only defense that these people have got." Screams and another explosion from outside punctuated her words. With all that behind her, she looked every bit there hero that her sister was. Just...without the suit. Or powers other than human persistence.

Winn wondered how often Alex got marginalized because her sister happened to come from another planet. He decided that they should probably change that mindset.

…If they survived tonight, of course. Always assuming that.

xx

Things out in the street were about as bad as they sounded. People screaming and fleeing, several buildings with gaping holes in the walls that faced the street, power lines ripped and sparking overhead. It looked a little like Alex imagined the end of the world would. _Where is Kara?_ Normally her sister would have been there minutes ago, facing down whatever the threat was. But so far no Supergirl. And there was a man in a high-tech suit waltzing down the street with something that looked like a rocket launcher perched on his shoulder.

There wasn't time to wait for Kara.

Alex kicked off her (expensive) heels, knowing that fighting barefoot would suck but fighting in heels would suck more. Casting around for a weapon, she settled on a length of pipe that had probably been inside the restaurant wall at one point. It was a decent weight, at least; she could do some damage with that. (If only she'd taken a place to hide a gun into consideration when she'd purchased the dress.)

"Okay, we need to get all of these people somewhere safe," she instructed Winn as she processed through the situation. "Preferably someplace back there, where this guy has already been. It seems like he's on a pretty straight path, at least."

"I mean, there's a park a block or two back?" Winn suggested, sounding about as confident as Alex was feeling. "At least there's no walls for this guy to blow in there."

She gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile. "Perfect. I need you to get all of these people headed in that direction."

"Wait, hold up, where are _you_ going?"

"I'm going after the guy." She would have thought that was obvious.

"By yourself? Alex, you can't do that, look at him! He's got a crazy super suit, and a freaking rocket launcher! If Kara was here -"

"We don't have time to wait for Kara, Winn!" Nor did they have the luxury of wondering why she hadn't shown up yet. (There had to be a good reason.) "Look, this guy is going to keep going unless somebody stops him. Maybe I can lead him to a place where he'll do less damage. At least I can distract him. But we don't have time to argue about it; please, get these people out of here."

He was not happy. And Alex was really sorry that this couldn't be easier for him, but Winn was stronger than he gave himself credit for. No matter what doubts he had about himself, he could get his part of it done. Hopefully, Alex could do her part, too.

"Good luck," he offered finally, before taking off to intercept a frightened family and direct them towards the park.

 _Good_. That took care of Winn's safety, and all the civilians. Which just left the big guy with the rocket launcher.

The guy was taking his time, at least, pausing in front of buildings and eyeing them up before firing his weapon. It wasn't quite a rocket launcher, Alex realized as she got closer. There were no actual projectiles that she could see. It was more like a localized sonic burst. She could literally see the sound waves rippling out of the cannon. Which was a little like Silver Banshee, except much more focused.

Alex had dealt with worse.

"Hey, Trigger-Happy! Why don't you try using your words instead of blowing stuff up?"

The man (she assumed it was a man) whipped around to face her, and the edge of a sonic blast caught Alex and threw her across the street. She swore as she hit the ground. _Right, avoid the sonic blasts. Got it._ Fully aware that she was running on little more than adrenaline and stubbornness, she shoved herself to her feet and gripped her pipe tightly. "Whatever you want, I'm sure we can figure out a better way for you to get it than leveling a city block."

He cocked his head at her and adjusted the weapon on his shoulder.

Well fine, then. "Okay, great. We can do this the hard way, too."

Fighting a mute villain with a super-suit and a sonic cannon, while wearing a dress, was not exactly the best plan of action that Alex had ever come up with. This was exactly why she preferred an alternative wardrobe! But, for all that the suit and the cannon made this guy powerful, they also weighed him down. Alex was faster. In spite of her eveningwear, she managed to charge him while sidestepping his blasts, ducking around and swinging hard with her piece of piping.

It seemed to have little effect. The pipe bounced off his suit, jarring Alex's arms, and she barely dodged a swipe by one suit-enhanced hand. She tried again from a different angle, but barely scratched the armour. The bar glanced off him so hard on the third try that it slipped out of Alex's hands and skittered away across the street. "Oh, come on!"

A high-pitched whine was all the warning she had that the cannon was powering up again. Alex dove behind a parked car, grunting in pain as the rough pavement tore up her bare shoulder. A second later, the car shattered into pieces in front of her. Trigger-Happy stalked forward, cannon aimed down at her.

This was _not_ how Alex had wanted this evening to end.

She glanced around for something, anything, that could be used as a weapon, but whatever she might have grabbed was too far away and there wasn't time and she couldn't believe that she was going to die like this, she'd never said goodbye to Kara -

"Hey you!" Out of nowhere, a brick flew through the air and hit Trigger-Happy in the helmet.

He turned to face this new assailant, and Alex scrambled to her feet and stumbled away, grabbing a broomstick lying abandoned on the sidewalk. It was then that she got a good look at her unlikely hero.

"Winn?" What was he doing back here? He was supposed to be getting everyone else _out._

From the expression on Winn's face, he had realized that antagonizing the guy with the sonic cannon probably wasn't the wisest life decision. He stumbled a few steps back as Trigger-Happy stalked towards him, but all things considered, held his ground extremely well. He was holding another brick in his hand. "You know what?" he was saying, babbling nervously as he backed down. "You're right, the brick was a mistake. There are better ways of getting a guy's attention than throwing things at his head, am I right? But we can work this out! Why don't I put down my rock and you put down your sword, and we'll try to kill each other like civilized people, okay? How does that sound?"

God bless him, he was quoting _The Princess Bride_ at the monster.

As proud as she was of Winn, Alex was definitely not going to leave him to fight this thing alone. Improvising with her broom handle - because her last attempts had been less than spectacular - she snapped the bristled part off and threw the stick like a javelin. It wouldn't have gotten her into the Olympics, but it _did_ knock into his cannon just enough to ruin his aim and send the blast over Winn's head. Yelping, Winn ducked and ran for cover, behind a car across the street.

"That's probably not the safest place for you to be," she warned him, dodging as Trigger-Happy took another shot at her. "What are you even doing here? I told you to get all those people to safety!"

"I did that!" Winn abandoned his car just in time and made a wild dash across the street. "You're a people, too!"

Noble, but not impressive, on a self-preservation scale. "I was handling it!"

"Really? 'Cause you looked like you could use a little help."

"Okay, so maybe this wasn't my finest moment. But Kara will kill me if anything happens to you!"

"Ditto!"

They both jumped in opposite directions as another blast took out half of a nail salon. Police sirens, which had been distant background noise until now, wailed closer. Trigger-Happy turned, distracted by the new arrivals, and Alex would have been relieved except she was pretty sure now that bullets were going to bounce off of his suit. And the police cars wouldn't fare too well against his sonic cannon, either.

Where was Kara? Or _anyone_ from the DEO, for that matter?

"Winn, we've got to do something. We can't let him kill all those cops."

Winn spread his hands helplessly. "What are we supposed to do, Alex? He's already proved impervious to pretty much everything. If Kara was here -"

"Winn!" Alex grabbed him by the shoulders. "I want you to stop saying that. We can do this! You already saved all of those people, and we are not dead yet. We just need to think." 

The first police car was hit at an odd angle, and instead of bursting into pieces, it was flipped straight up in the air. Cops scrambled away as it crashed down onto the pavement.

Winn tried to look, but Alex wouldn't let him turn around. "You are the smartest person I know," she told him. "Brawn didn't work on him, but I guarantee that you're smarter than he is. You can do this!"

"Well…" Winn took a deep breath, and forced himself to straighten up. "He can only focus on one thing at once," he said finally. She could see his brain rolling around the variables, like a computer ready to spit out all the answers. "That doesn't tell us how to stop him _permanently_ , but as long as he's got enough distractions, I think we can stop him from doing too much damage, at least."

"Good, that's good! Keep going." The cops - now split up on opposite sides of the street, were actually doing a fairly good job of keeping him distracted. It seemed they'd learned quickly to avoid his sonic blasts. But as Alex had suspected, their guns were basically useless. He swept back and forth between the two groups, caving in the entrance to a dollar store, blowing away a fire hydrant cover, and decimating three more parked cars.

"I have something!" Winn exclaimed suddenly. He pointed excitedly across the street, where water was spewing out of a yellow stump. "It was something that Kara did once, with Livewire. Kind of. You need to get him next to what's left of that fire hydrant."

Eying the geyser across of the street, Alex connected the dots. It was actually a pretty good idea, considering what they had to work with. But this was the man who had learned to read Kryptonian in his spare time. "How are you going to get the wires to touch him without electrocuting yourself, though?"

"By using his own powers against him." Winn grinned, the most confident he had looked all night. "We can do this."

Alex trusted him. "What do you need me to do?"

"Just get him into place by the fire hydrant. And, you know, don't be in the water when it goes zap."

Oh sure, just like that. But she lied with as much confidence as Winn had spoken. "Easy peasy."

"Good luck!"

Taking a cue from Winn's entrance to the scene, Alex took advantage of the debris in the street and started throwing bricks at Trigger-Happy, drawing his attention away from the cops. "Remember me?" she challenged when he turned around. "How about round two?"

It was a bit disconcerting that the monster didn't speak, but body language was more than enough to get his point across, He abandoned the cops and followed her, cannon aimed steadily but not yet firing on her. That was fine by Alex; his aim was getting better, and she wasn't excited about the idea of getting hit again. "Yeah, that's right, just a little more. I'm right here."

The spray from the broken fire hydrant soaked her in seconds, plastering her hair to her neck and making her dress heavy and clinging. She sloshed through as quickly as she could backwards, and she realized that the water had spread quite a bit farther than she'd thought. He was directly in the spray now, but she was nowhere close to dry ground. And if Winn didn't do whatever he was planning soon, they were going to lose him.

"Winn?" She could see him standing next to a telephone pole. There was a policeman with him, aiming his gun at the monster. "Winn, you have to do it."

He didn't shout back, but he shook his head. She read his thoughts clearly in his face. _Not until you're clear_.

It wasn't what Alex wanted either, but they couldn't let this thing continue its rampage. "I don't have time. You have to do it, or we'll lose our chance. Please!"

Several things happened at once. The cop fired without waiting for Winn's signal to do so, and the two of them dove aside as a sonic blast raked towards them and shattered the pole they'd been standing in front of. Already weakened by similar damages, the power lines snapped under the pressure, dropping into the ankle-deep puddle that the fire hydrant had created. Alex closed her eyes, waiting for it to hurt, and felt something solid and familiar slam into her and lift her up. Below, there was a metallic-sounding scream.

When she opened her eyes, Trigger-Happy was still writhing and twitching in the puddle, sparks dancing in the air around him. Kara was in the sky blowing on the geyser, freezing over the puddle so that the electricity would stop flowing and icing Trigger-Happy over. Alex's rescuer set her gently on her feet.

It was J'onn.

"Don't ever do anything stupid like that again!" he growled at her, morphing back into his human form. He looked angry, which Alex had long ago learned to interpreted to mean _scared_. "Of all the foolish, reckless, half-assed stunts you could have pulled -" Alex wrapped her arms around him. Coming as close as she had to dying caught up quick, and she was pretty sure if she didn't hang on she was going to fall.

She felt him sigh, and he hugged her back.

Suddenly, Trigger-Happy shifted, ice cracking all around him. He dragged himself to his feet, leaving pieces of his armor behind in the ice, including the faceplate of his helmet. Before Kara or J'onn had time to react, he had activated hidden thrustor in his suit and blasted away.

Alex clung tighter to J'onn, positive now that he was the only thing keeping her upright. In the fraction of a second she'd seen the face inside the helmet, her heart had stopped. He was older, worn, scarred, but she still saw his face in her dreams every night. The man in the suit had been Jeremiah Danvers.

"Dad?"

Everything around her turned fuzzy and white.

xx

Alex woke up back at the DEO, in the med bay, with Kara and J'onn by her side.

Winn was her first thought. She couldn't remember if she'd seen him after J'onn had picked her up. She sat straight up in bed, and it _hurt_ , and she needed to know. "Where is Winn? Is he okay?"

"He's fine," J'onn promised gruffly, arms crossed. "A little scraped up, but in better shape than you, Miss Danvers; we sent him home. He was rather indignant that you decided to sacrifice yourself without talking to him first. A sentiment that I happen to agree with."

"He was amazing." Alex relaxed back against her pillow and smiled at Kara's worried face. "You should have seen him, Kara. He's a hero."

"So are you," Kara pointed out with a little smile of her own. "I am _so_ sorry we weren't there to help you! The DEO was on lockdown; someone released an alien virus in the facility and we couldn't get out until it was dealt with. We didn't even know there was stuff happening downtown until James called us and said he could see the explosions from his office."

The explosions. Trigger-Happy. _Dad_.

She jerked upright again, fighting against J'onn and Kara's hands as they tried to push her back. This was important. "Kara, the man in the suit, he wasn't just some random criminal; that was my dad."

Her sister and J'onn exchanged a concerned look. "Now, we know you've been through a lot," the latter began in a grave voice.

Alex cut him off. "I know what I saw, Sir. It was my dad."

"Alex," Kara tried, "if that was really Jeremiah, then why did he try to kill you?"

"CADMUS has had him for over _ten years_ ," Alex pointed out. It seemed like they forgot about that, sometimes. How long he had been at the mercy of those lunatics. (Maybe they would have looked harder, sooner, if they thought a little more about that.) "You saw what they did to those guys they'd had for ten days; they were barely human anymore. They must have experimented on my dad, too."

"I don't doubt it," J'onn rumbled, finally succeeding in getting her to lay back again. He seemed deeply troubled. "No one is questioning what you saw, Alex."

She frowned at him. Was that not what was happening right now? Because from where she was sitting, it sounded like that was exactly what they were doing. "Then what are you questioning, exactly?"

J'onn hesitated, looking at Kara for help. She held up her hands and took a step back. "Hey, don't look at me. If Alex says it's him, then I'm with her." She crossed her arms and joined her sister in looking at him expectantly.

Finally, he shook his head. "The world should be terrified of the two of you," he grumbled. "You're menaces!"

"We try," Kara said smugly. "Now spill. What are you worried about?"

"After what we witnessed tonight, I am not sure that there is anything left of Jeremiah in that creature. He didn't recognize his own daughter. He didn't even _hesitate_. I don't want you to be disappointed if we can't find Jeremiah in there somewhere. Besides that, we don't have any idea of where he's gone."

"Actually, I might have an idea about that." Winn slunk into the room, looking embarrassed. J'onn growled at him. "I know! I was supposed to go home. But I had an idea about how to track Trigger-Happy, and your tech here is just so _shiny_ …" Another low growl. "Anyways! I wanted to see if I could figure out where he went; we still don't know _why_ he took out that block, and if he didn't get what he wanted there, he might try again. And this was all before I knew that it was your dad going HAM on the downtown area, Alex."

"Winn," she said warningly.

"Right! Sorry. And I'm still working on a way to track where he went, but I'm pretty sure I figured out what it was that he was after downtown."

"Would it be too pretentious to say that he was after my brilliant technology?"

"Oh, yeah, Maxwell Lord is here. Did you guys know that he invented jetpacks?"

xx

 _Note: So, um...yeah. My ulterior motive for writing all this was because I REALLY want to find out what happened to Jeremiah, and the fact that the show (to my knowledge) has not dealt with the poor boy yet stresses me out. So I did it myself._

 _Also, surprise cameo by Maxwell Lord! I need some closure about him too._

 _And...to be continued soon, I hope. I have a bit more writing to do to finish up the rest of it, but I remain optimistic._

 _Thank you for reading!_


End file.
